Stadium Casino Westmoreland, an affiliate of The Cordish Companies, has celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony for the new $150m Live! Casino.

Cordish executives were joined by Pennsylvania State Senator Kim Ward and State Representative George Dunbar, along with dozens of regional business, community and tourism leaders, for the first turn of the shovels marking the start of construction on the 100,000-square-foot gaming, dining and entertainment destination.

Live! Casino will be part of the popular 1.3-million-square-foot Westmoreland Mall development, located in Hempfield Township, approximately 30 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.

Live! Casino will feature 750 slots and approximately 30 live action table games; a Sportsbook; plus, nationally-recognised restaurants and live entertainment venues. The Project is expected to generate $188 Million in annual economic impact, with an additional $148 Million in economic impact from construction, including approximately 960 direct and indirect construction jobs, plus approximately 500 permanent new jobs for local and regional residents.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to break ground on the newest Live! Casino project and expand this distinctive brand even further into Pennsylvania. We are a family-owned company that is deeply committed to treating our guests like family, so we’re going to ensure that everything our guests have come to love about Live! Casino – first-class service, friendly atmosphere and exciting environment – is reflected in this new, unique gaming, dining and entertainment destination in Westmoreland County,” Jon Cordish, Principal of The Cordish Companies.

Delaware igaming revenue in October has touched the lowest level of the year due to a sharp month-on-month decline in revenue at Dover Downs.

The online gaming revenue in October was $246,092, which is 36.1% down from $384,830 in September. Consumers spent $9.4m on igaming in October, down from $11.8m in September.

Video lottery was the primary source of revenue for the market’s three licensed operators, accounting for $184,224 of the total. Table games followed on $40,428, but this was significantly lower than $171,156 in September.

Poker rake and fee revenue was relatively level month-on-month at $21,439. Players won a total of $9.6m, including $6.4m from table games and $3.2m from video lottery.

Delaware Park was the market leader in October, recording $126,126 in revenue, only slightly down on the previous month. Harrington Raceway followed with revenue of $77,171 for the month off total consumer spending of $1.1m.

Dover Downs slipped from first place in September to last in October, mainly due to a $6726 loss for its online table games, compared to $119,648 in revenue in the previous month.

FanDuel partnership sees FTP specialist ramp fan engagement at milestone intersection of major US sports

SportCaller, the free-to-play (FTP) sports-game specialist, has bolstered its partnership with US operator FanDuel through the success of its latest game-rollout to fresh audiences countrywide across North America.

Having integrated SportCaller’s easy-to-deploy FTP platform – initially targeting March Madness, the MLB and then the new NFL season – FanDuel’s latest game targeted that rarest of sporting phenomena, the Sports Equinox, which had occurred only 18 times previously.

A Sports Equinox takes place when all four major sports (NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL) play a game on the same day. Twenty-six games took place across each of the four tentpole sports and users were asked to pick at least 20 correct results in order to win a share of the $500k jackpot. This FTP game was a first for FanDuel in that it was open to both Sportsbook and Fantasy customers, resulting in record-breaking take-up rates from players countrywide.

Alongside this SportCaller-powered FTP game, FanDuel also launched a mini-site with a data-driven Sports Equinox countdown clock to the first games of the day, which was even projected on to the side of a skyscraper in New York’s Times Square for the lead-up to the games. Sports Equinox followed hot on the heels of Keep the Cash, another $1 million game launched in time for the start of the NFL season in order to enhance fan engagement throughout the regular season and the playoffs.

This is a unique FTP offering in the US market, leveraging the success and learnings from Paddy Power Betfair whose original concept, Beat The Drop, shattered best-case projections at the 2018 World Cup. The instant acclaim for this product rollout (turning the tables on traditional operator-player dynamics by awarding customers their “winnings” up front) underlines the synergies delivered from a wider global collaboration with Flutter Entertainment, for whom SportCaller’s market-leading platform is fast becoming a key cog in a brand-wide localisation strategy.

Lorcan Kelly, VP of sportsbook product at FanDuel, said: “With this platform, we can now deploy new games, like Sports Equinox and Keep the Cash, as a targeted approach towards key sporting events, each offering a tailored solution with efficient real-time reporting.”

SportCaller MD Cillian Barry added: “After the breakout success of Beat The Drop for Flutter Entertainment over the last World Cup, it’s a real validation to now be delivering similar record-breaking retention results for FanDuel in the States. It’s an exciting time in an embryonic market.

“It’s so rare that the planets align for a Sports Equinox. Therefore, it was great that we could respond by creating a game that immediately captured the public’s imagination and attention. It consolidates the traction already generated by games such as Keep the Cash, which offers free games for the duration of an enthralling NFL season that is coming to the boil over the next few months.”

All SportCaller games ride on the back of a unique account-management platform, which is equipped with the industry’s finest CRM and geolocation tools. This helps overcome any local regulatory challenge across fragmented legislative landscapes, above all in the US where regulation continues to show varied hands state-by-state.

SportCaller’s pioneering performance in the domain of enhanced acquisition and retention remains second-to-none across a raft of different sports, which will now include: college sports, NBA, MLB, golf, tennis, UFC, boxing and NFL.